Christmas 2010

We had a very busy, but very fun Christmas. With Ty's birthday, Jake's graduation, Jason's wedding, and Christmas, it was difficult to catch our breath! But it was filled with lots of family and friends.
Since all of Jake's family was in town for his little brother Jason's wedding, we had a big Richardson Christmas party. We're talking all of the siblings, their spouses, and kids. That's 42 people we're talking about! We had a great time with a gift exchange, good food, and LOTS of laughing. And as typical with the Richardsons (especially when all the bros get together), there has to be some kind of show of physical strength. So Sam decided to show us how he could do 100 push ups. It wasn't long before we broke out into a push up contest: brothers battling it out, husbands against wives, cousins against each other, and we even got Mom & Dad to join in on the fun. Oh it was such a good laugh... and a good work out!




While all the brothers were together they played on Jake's indoor soccer team. It's always fun to watch Jake play sports with his bros. Boy do they know how to sweat!

We also had a combined birthday party for Tyler, Thaddeus, and Terra whose birthdays are all within about a week and a half of each other.
What's a Christmas trip to AZ without going to see the Temple lights? These 3 cousins were born within about 5 weeks of each other. They're buds. We wish Thaddeus lived closer so Ty and Eli could play with him more!
Also, a bunch of the Richardsons went to go see the Nutcracker at the Phoenix Symphony Hall. It was amazing! Here we are in front of one of the many beautiful Christmas trees that were arranged in the foyer.

And then we had our usual fun, but verging on sacrilegious nativity scene with the Merrell family. I, of course, was Mary, being great with child. One of the funniest things about the Merrell nativity is that every year we do the same program in front of our audience... an empty couch. Sometimes we even record it, but we never watch it. This year we had my Grandma Merrell watching us, and my older brother Erin's girlfriend as well, who I later found out is Jewish...or was Jewish... something like that. No wonder she didn't know any of the Christmas songs we were singing! Ha. Side note: I absolutely adore my brother's girlfriend. She was very social and wasn't too weirded out by all of our shenanigans. Her name is Bo and she is beautiful and very sweet. Anyways, here is proof of our nativity:
And Santa even found us! Tyler was so excited when we woke him up. He said, "Santa came!" And ran out to find his basketball hoop. He still will frequently mention that Santa brought him certain things as he's playing with them. Even things that Santa didnt' bring! That Santa sure is amazing... and gets all the credit!
Jake is so creative in his wrapping techniques!
This remote controlled helicopter has been a big hit. My sister got her husband Joel one too, so the boys have fun playing together.
Jake is so funny- more than anything else he wanted some "swishy" pants for Christmas. But not just any swishy pants- they had to have a soft, cotton lining, not the mesh stuff. You'd be surprised how hard they are to find. The nice man at JC Penney went back to the Storage room 2 different times to find these for me!
Tyler loved unwrapping his presents and loves to play with all the things Santa brought.

See ya next year Christmas... er, this year I guess! I just love Christmas time! Let the countdown begin!

Jake's Graduation!

My sweetums graduated from the Ira A. Fulton School of Engineering at ASU in December 2010! What an accomplishment! I am so proud of all of Jake's hard work. He not only worked hard in school, but also received a [paid] internship position with the City of Mesa for his final semester. So he was busy busy busy. What a relief to have that under his belt. Masters anyone? We'll see... After Jake's graduation we had a little shindig at my parents' house with lots of yummy food and fun conversation. Most of Jake's family was in town for his little brother Jason's wedding, so it was fun to have the whole gang there. ConGRADulations Jake!
My good friend Andrea made the awesome announcements for Jake's big day. Thanks Andrea!
Typical Jake keeping things light
The proud family all decked out in Sun Devil gear
Mr. Ira A. Fulton himself. His speech was really sweet and funny. Talked a lot about his wife. He reminded me of how an apostle would talk. His religion was showing through :)
All the graduating engineers
Ty was so proud of his daddy!
Jake had the "privilege" of sitting right next to the obnoxious construction engineers. They were so loud and thought their hats made them the bomb dot com. But you have to admit, their hats ARE pretty fun. Ty kept calling them Bob the Builder hats.
Jake with his good friend Nathan Merrill. They had a bunch of classes together and saw each other through to the end!
Following in Daddy's footsteps!
Jake and his proud parents. All of their sons are very educated and successful. So far the occupations of their sons are: police officer/detective, orthopedic surgeon, successful business man, lawyer, and now they can add to their list an engineer!
The whole gang!
I love my family!
Ty warming up to Uncle Sam. He loves him!

Tyler's 2nd Birthday

Tyler is such a big boy now. He turned 2 way back on December 19th. We had a fun little birthday party with his friends and cousins @ the park by Grandma & Grandpa Merrell's house. Still to this day every time, and I mean every time, we pass Enid Park he says, "It's my party!" and then goes on to talk about how Eli played bowling and Claire played basketball, and we had cupcakes, and opened presents. I tell ya, this kid has got a memory like no other! Here are a few pictures from the big day.

Singing Happy Birthday. Tyler of course sang right a long. It's one of his favorites. Especially when you get to blow out candles!
Oooh. What is it?
A grabber thingy! That's what Ty still calls it :)



Thanks everyone!

Gingerbread Houses 2010

Pardon all of the belated posts, but like I said before, I'm playing catch up. Remember how Jake and I are awesome match makers and helped our friends Jesse and Stacie find each other? Well, we figured they're pretty much indebted to us forever, so we make them hang out with us on a pretty regular basis. And we really like Scott and Alisse so we make them hang out with us too. It usually involves food (most often pizza, and an occasional veggie tray, because we're real healthy like that...), games, and a lot of laughing. It also has involved a lot of baby talk since Scott and Alisse have the most darling little girl Lucy, and both Stacie and I are expecting.

This particular night in December we made gingerbread houses, after eating pizza of course. And our masterpieces:
Scott & Alisse

Stacie & Jesse (with Scott looking on with complete glee at their fine handy work)

Jake & Megan (pardon the red eyes, no time for editing!)

Thanksgiving 2010

As per our tradition, we participated in the Turkey Trot on Thanksgiving. I was a wuss and didn't run it. I use pregnancy as an excuse too often! Instead I chatted with my friend Katie whose husband was running and pushing their son Dylan in the stroller (Dylan and Ty are in the same nursery and are good buddies). But Jake ran it and did fantastic! And of course my "little" brother Blake ran it and creamed the Turkey. He does every year. Way to go guys!




And what's Thanksgiving with out a little fishing at "Wal-Mart Pond"? There is a golf course right next to Wal-Mart by my parents' house and we have done a many fishing trip there and have always called it Wal-Mart Pond.



Tyler has been telling me the past week or so that he wants to go to Wal-Mart to get a Spiderman fishing pole and to go fishing. This kid has learned quickly that you can get everything you need at Wal-Mart. That's my boy.

A Day at the Farm

My friends, Raylene and Andrea, and I like to get together for craft/play days with the kids. They've been a little sparse lately due to busy schedules, kids being sick, and new babies. Here are a couple of pictures from a day we spent at Raylene's house, which happens to be on her family's farm. The kids loved seeing all the animals. Since then Raylene has had a little boy, Taylor, and both Andrea and I are expecting. Our kids are multiplying right before our eyes!


From Left to right: Michael (Andrea's), Grant (Andrea's), Tyler (Mine), Madison (Raylene's), Brooklyn (Raylene's)



*Funny side note. The day before our little get together my next door neighbor had been shot and killed in his apartment. Yes, literally next door. Jake was the one to call 911. I went into their apartment to take their 2 year old son while the police and paramedics were there and what not. Hit a little too close to home if you ask me, literally. Anyways, that's not the funny part. Raylene had mentioned it to her visiting teacher. Apparently there was a mix up in the communication because while we were having our little play day her visiting teacher showed up with a loaf of homemade bread, a nice card, and her sincerest apologies for Raylene's loss. Apparently she thought that I was the one who had been shot and killed. Ha! We had a good laugh at that.

Better Late Than Never. Halloween 2010

Go ahead, laugh at me for posting this 5 months late. I'm laughing at myself. But really, I just wanted to document somewhere our fun Halloween costumes from 2010. I'm trying to catch up a bit before our bundle of joy gets here, so bear with me.
Tyler was obsessed with Toy Story for awhile. Still one of his favorites, but at least we're not watching everyday anymore! So I thought it appropriate that we dress up from the movie. Introducing Woody, Jessie, and Buzz Lightyear!